Kylie Minogue admits Michael Hutchence opened her "eyes to the world".

The 45-year-old singer dated the Never Tear Us Apart singer for two years from 1989 until 1991 when he left her to embark on a romance with Helena Christensen, and the blonde beauty insists her former lover is responsible for so many of her life experiences.

She said: "Let's just say I was 21 and my eyes were open to the world.

"You want to experience everything and I couldn't think of a better person to, you know, take those first steps into the big wide world with."

The former couple remained close friends until the INXS frontman committed suicide at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Sydney, Australia, in 1997 while under the influence of drugs and alcohol.

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Kylie explained to Australia's GQ magazine: "I remember thinking that at the time, that of course his was the first funeral and the first kind of thing like that because Michael was just so many firsts in my life ... He was. Yes, he was."

After Michael's romance with Helena, he went on to date Paula Yates and fathered Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily Hutchence Geldof - who is known as Tiger Lily - in 1996, but she was raised by Bob Geldof following Paula's death in 2000.

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However, Michael's INXS' bandmate Kirk Pengilly claims he had "planned to leave" Paula - who he started dating in 1995 following the breakdown of her marriage to Bob - before his death and the group don't think the rocker would approve of his little girl being raised by her half-sisters' father.

Speaking to Australia's Channel 7, guitarist Tim Farris added: "Michael hated Bob in the end so much, to think that he would end up as the sole parent of Tiger Lily would have been the most horrific thing he could have imagined. But luckily for Tiger she had Bob at the end."